The Herne Hill Society blog

Calm or chaos? The traffic issue

Lambeth and Southwark have been busy during these troubled times working on ways – depending on where you stand on the issue – to drive residents to distraction or to give them a better world of calmer streets. Views are polarised. You need look no further than the views about Low Traffic Neighbourhoods on BrixtonBuzz. And this presents a quandary to a group such as the Herne Hill Society. Should we take a position, and if so what position? Should we be canvassing members to find out exactly where they stand on local traffic issues? Assuming there were a majority for one position, does it necessarily follow that the Society should therefore come out campaigning for that position?

The numbers of those for and those against might be very close. There will almost certainly be a significant number who either have no opinion, or none they wish to make public, or who do not want to see the Society taking a campaigning stance, particularly on such a divisive issue. And, in our view, we would also need to look at Herne Hill more broadly, because it is a place not wholly inhabited by members of the Society.

Some will say, "You should get off the fence" – but that assumes there is a “right” side to step down onto. We are not persuaded that there is a right side, or at least not one that this Society should be supporting or promoting. The inherent nature of the traffic issue is that it often affects the residents of one street very differently from those of another. It is calm and lower carbon emissions for some, and chaos and carbon overload for others. Residents of those streets can and do get together and promote their views. Local councillors have to listen and in turn our local authorities have to balance the multiple arguments in making policy. 

We think our Society works best when it plays to its strengths; and a particular strength, through its long-running Magazine (150 issues and still going strong!), is its ability to reflect, illuminate and report on issues and events in our area, great and small, present and past. So through whatever constraints, obstacles or diversions might be placed in the road we will do our best to follow that course.

Brockwell Park Festivals Proposals

We learn that Lambeth Council’s plans to allow music festivals again in Brockwell Park are well advanced, all subject of course to COVID-19.

Published documents now available on Brixton Buzz show that a Summer Event Series 2021 is envisaged, with up to six large / major event days taking place over two consecutive weekends, and medium / small community event days taking place in the weekdays between.

Final decisions will supposedly be made next spring. But the Council has naturally been in discussion with the operators already, and appears disposed to grant permission. So, pandemic permitting, the park will again hold a major event organised by Mighty Hoopla, plus other events.

The occupation of a large area of the park would start on Wednesday 26 May (when the contractors are admitted) lasting until Sunday 20 June 2021 when the derig ends. Allow several more weeks for repairing any damage done to the ground of the park, though the festival organisers pay a deposit in advance for making good any damage caused.

On "Major Event Days", planning will be in place to accommodate 25,000 on site each day. On "Large Event Days" (mid-week community days), planning will be in place to accommodate up to 10,000 on site.

Divisive?

As in previous years, the prospect of such events provokes controversy.

Some people are content to see the park used in ways that brings fun to mainly young(ish) people, and some financial benefit to the Council and some local businesses. Others are opposed to offering this public amenity to what are, in effect, commercial operators whose events can damage the park, create noise disturbance and disrupt local streets.

According to a recent Brixton Buzz article, The Friends of Brockwell Park, in particular, are leading the outcry and inviting people to protest to Lambeth Councillors by 8 December, and to the events team at Lambeth Council at [email protected]. Any local resident is entitled to comment of course.

The Great Underpass Mural

As surely everyone must know by now, this is an imaginative project to transform the underpass that runs under the railway lines at Herne Hill Station with a 40-metre mural — created by Victor Szepessy and coloured in by local people, including hundreds of schoolchildren.

The big day, 12 September, was overcast and drizzly. The team of volunteers, comprehensively briefed and marshalled by the brilliant Lucy Reynolds, started to arrive before 8am. It was immediately clear that this was a major undertaking. At 9:15 it was the turn of the first school group, from St Jude’s, to start the task of carefully colouring Victor’s painting-by-numbers panorama. The children were very excited — their first question:” Are we going to be on TV?”  And so it went on. By 8pm the numbers of participants — of all ages — had surpassed 2,000, with more schoolchildren arriving the following day! The Mayors of Lambeth and Southwark had to colour in their bit. And celebrity was there, in the shape of local resident Sir Mark Rylance – and his dog. 

The number of participants involved is way in excess of the previous record, held by a Mexican team. But to achieve Guinness World Record status, every aspect of the exercise must be documented and verified. (There were video camera, barcode scanners and iPads everywhere.) Will we get it? We shall see. But of one thing we can be sure: the process of organising and carrying out this project has captured the imagination of Herne Hill and brought together the community in an inspiring way. 

The mural project is funded by the Herne Hill Forum, Lambeth Council, Southeastern Railways and Network Rail and the Aviva Community Fund. For more background, read “Tunnel Vision” in Herne Hill magazine.

Flower Power postscript

 On 24 May 2018 Network Rail issued the following statement

Having met with our tenant and continued to review the options available to us, we have identified a different site to locate the electricity sub-station, which we will now pursue. We will not, therefore, be continuing to discuss relocation options with The Flower Lady.

It remans to be seen what alternative site will be chosen for the sub-station.

 

 

 

 

Conservation status for Station Square?

We received acknowledgement yesterday from Lambeth Council of our Conservation Area submission regarding Herne Hill "Station Square".  The text of Colin Wight's letter of 16 May 2018 appears below.

"I am writing on behalf of the Herne Hill Society. The Society has always taken an active interest in the built environment and historic heritage of Herne Hill. Conservation Areas, and national and local listing, are vital tools in conserving the special character of our area.

The Society understands that Lambeth are considering preparing proposals for the designation of Herne Hill Station and that part of Railton Road often referred to as “Station Square” as a Conservation Area (CA). We strongly support such proposals and urge that they be given urgent attention. Given the existence of the Herne Hill CA on the east side of the railway, that CA could be readily enlarged to include the station and Station Square.

In the past few years, especially with the exclusion of through traffic, the great variety of many independent shops, the establishment of a popular Sunday market and the restoration nearing completion of several buildings by Network Rail, this part of Herne Hill has seen a huge improvement. We want to see this improvement enhanced and protected from inappropriate development. The station and the buildings that form the “village centre” around it have a natural cohesion and work together as an architectural group, making the area particularly suited for CA status.

There is now a great urgency to progress this designation as a very characterful historic building immediately adjacent to the station, currently occupied by the Flower Lady florists, which it is understood dates back to the early 20th century (it is clearly shown in the attached photograph of c.1921 when it was Raphael The Tailor) is now under threat of demolition to be replaced by an electricity substation which would seriously reduce the quality of the local environment and have a negative impact on the likelihood of CA status. 

We would be interested to know the current state of the draft proposals and when it is thought they might be put into effect. The Herne Hill Society is able to call upon resources in terms of architectural expertise and historical research (not least from Lambeth’s leading architectural historian, Edmund Bird) and would welcome the opportunity to make these resources available to the Council’s officers."

 

Flower or Power?

A statement by The Herne Hill Society, dated 12 May 2018, follows:

The Herne Hill Society is very concerned to learn of Network Rail’s plan to demolish the Flower Lady Shop next to Herne Hill Station and to replace it with an electricity sub-station.  The shop occupies a prominent position and forms an important part of the attractive mix of small businesses that make up the Herne Hill “village”. This is an area that has undergone huge improvement in recent years and the refurbishment of the Network Rail shops, once completed, will further enhance this. It seems thoroughly perverse to contemplate a development that will do damage aesthetically and commercially to the heart of Herne Hill. We are also concerned at the lack of meaningful prior consultation with the wider community.

The flower shop provides a valuable local asset, the only one in the area. It is a business that Elaine Partleton, a very active and well-respected trader and member of our community, has built up over many years. We question whether alternative sites have been fully explored. Network Rail is a key participant in the community at the heart of Herne Hill and we would expect them to fulfil that role with proper regard and care for the wider interests of all in that community.